


10 facts about Sakumo Hatake

by MegaWallflower



Category: Naruto
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Introspection, M/M, Present Tense, Trans Hatake Kakashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-09 22:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19895146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaWallflower/pseuds/MegaWallflower
Summary: Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake.





	10 facts about Sakumo Hatake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShimadaGenji](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimadaGenji/gifts).



#  _One._

From the outside, the Hatake clan is known for its geniuses and prodigies. It’s long been said that it runs in the blood. It’s long been that said every Hatake has “flee-on-sight” orders from birth.

From inside the clan, the stories passed down are very different.

When Sakumo is first told the stories, he is too young, it is too soon, and so the words do not yet register in full. They are empty, and hollow—he learns that certain noises are commands, and he must do as commanded. He learns the words “sacrifice” and “tragedy,” and although his first word was “mama,” his second and third and forth words are “will of fire.” Mispronounced and without a shred of understanding of the blood and sacrifice of the words, but even to a child, the weight of the words felt palpable.

It is not until someone first speaks to Sakumo that he learns not to just hear and obey, but also to listen.

From an early age, Sakumo has no parents to wipe his tears, so he doesn’t cry, even as the weight of those words becomes so heavy that it really does hurt.

#  _Two._

Sakumo is a fast learner, when he is learning the things that matter.

He still has trouble knowing what faces to make when talking to other children, and he still doesn’t even know what other children talk about and is too anxious to ask. But Sakumo isn’t even ten years old when he brandishes his father’s tanto with an enemy’s blood for the first time.

His father isn’t around to see. He hasn’t been around for a while. Sakumo is beginning to understand why. He doesn’t wonder if his father would be proud or how he would feel to see him.

For Sakumo, life is simple.

He must complete his missions, and once he does, he is allowed back to his private space where there are no more sounds and no more people and no more invisible weight hanging over his shoulders.

Sakumo can’t understand why other children and other adults said his surname with such reverence and praise, even at funerals, even in the field.

The Hatake name was a promise of monotony with little reward, and a potential lifetime of white noise and silence. For the lucky ones.

#  _Three._

Sakumo’s first friend is Tsunade.

“You’re supposed to be _the_ Sakumo Hatake? You don’t look like anything special. I thought you were a genius.”

He’s pinned to the ground, a foot on his face and his hands behind his back.

She laughs and releases him, offering a hand to help him up.

In his seventeen years of life, it is the first time Sakumo has ever lost a fight, and the first time he’s ever been genuinely offered help.

He accepts.

#  _Four_

Sakumo has been in love exactly once.

She is a tokubetsu jonin, a member of the Inuzuka clan.

She knows him in ways that he hardly knows himself, and when she looks at him, he doesn’t know what she sees. He wishes he could see it, too.

Falling in love with her is all a blur of memories, of awkward conversations, of poorly-timed kisses, sweet and salty on the tongue, of the scent of the ocean clinging to her clothes between grains of sand, of standing back to back on missions and side to side beneath the stars.

She’s so bright that it hurts, like he’s been staring at the sun for far too long, but he can’t look away. She’s lively and warm and forgiving and everything good that he remembers and feels, and so much more on top of that.

"No," Sakumo finally answers, sliding his hand out of hers, no matter how much he wants to hold on. Sakumo wants so badly to be with her, and he knows that if he asks, she’ll help him find his own footing. She’ll help him become something other than a tool or a curse or a faint impression left behind by something that was never there in a village that owns his body and soul. She’ll help him simply be Sakumo, whoever that is. "I’m sorry. I can’t. I’m just…" He trails off. What is he? How does he finish?

She seems to understand, and she takes his hand again and gives it a squeeze, _hard_. It might be going numb.

"No. I’m sure of it. It’s you. It couldn’t be anyone else. I don’t like to repeat myself, so this is the only time I’ll make an exception, even for you. Sakumo, will you marry me?"

There are strands of gold among the brown, highlighted by the sun, and her dark eyes gleam in the warm twilight, just the way his do for her after every mission.

Somewhere in the depths of Sakumo’s chest, a heart beats.

#  _Five_

Sakumo is a workaholic.

His hands have blistered from learning the grip of his sword, and his muscles are aching and sore, but he never complains. When he falls, he gets back up, wipes the blood from his lips, and says “I can do it this time. Let’s keep going.”

Sakumo is on a mission in the Land of Wind when Kakashi is born. When he returns to the village, Kakashi is swaddled in a warm Inuzuka blanket and sleeping in his wife’s arms. He tries to apologize, but she cuts him off and just tells him how much their child looks like Sakumo and how he has unfortunately inherited that wild Hatake hair of his.

Sakumo is on a mission during Kakashi’s first words. Apparently, it was “Fang.” His wife has been telling Kakashi so many stories about him.

One day, Sakumo’s wife is given a mission that they both know she isn’t supposed to return from.

She just grins and hands him a summon contract, says she’ll be back before either of her boys even notice that she’s gone. She says she’ll see him again someday. She says she’ll always love him. She says take care of their child for her while she’s gone. She says again, she won’t be long.

The last thing she ever says to Sakumo is not “I love you.”

It is “Take care of our child.”

#  _Six_

Sakumo isn’t sure what sort of relationship a father should have with his child, especially when there is no mother to consult.

He can’t remember his own father’s face or his own mother’s voice, so he isn’t even sure what to hope for.

Sakumo wants to be a positive beacon to his child, though. Sakumo wants his child to know himself better than Sakumo was able to know himself at that age. So Sakumo is happy to relent and call Kakashi “Kakashi,” happy to welcome his son into his home, happy to train him in any arts that interested him. He gives Kakashi a mask, and Kakashi swears to wear it forever. Sakumo gives Kakashi anything he wants. He can never find it in him to deny his son anything.

Kakashi’s eyes light up when he sees his father, and Sakumo’s heart feels light.

He still isn’t sure what the correct answer was to what he should aim for in his relationship with his son.

But Sakumo has never loved anyone more than he loved Kakashi.

#  _Seven_

Sakumo doesn’t get along well with the other parents. He can’t. He worries that he’s part of the reason why Kakashi can’t get along with the other kids.

He’s grateful for Might Duy, who calls him his best friend. He says their sons are getting along splendidly. Sakumo watches Guy lose another one-sided fight against his son and wonders if Duy is being facetious or perceptive.

Sakumo has no idea if their sons will become good friends. Powerful rivals, without a doubt, but friends?

Guy grins and gets back up, praising Kakashi while the other boy just rolls his eye and shrugs.

Duy pats Sakumo on the shoulder and tells him again how great this is going.

#  _Eight_

When Sakumo kills, he says a prayer. He can’t remember when he started doing it, but he does it every time now.

Steel meets steel and they clash and crash, sparks flying between forged metal in the air and suffocating against the desert sand. This woman is desperate—he can see it in her eyes, begging and pleading and brown like the fallen leaves back home. He is struggling, but he is on a mission. She’s got to protect herself, because she has failed to protect her husband, and grief and loss can make shinobi so strong, so reckless.

This isn’t a fight she can win.

He prays that she will meet her husband in whatever afterlife she will travel to now.

#  _Nine_

The last thing Sakumo sees before the light leaves his eyes is Kakashi.

He is cold and almost numb. The sounds of Kakashi’s frantic calls feel so, so far away. He can barely feel the little hands alternating between trying to shake him awake and applying pressure to his wound.

Why does he have this tragedy?

It was promised to him, against blood-dyed fallen leaves and with a pledge that he can’t remember in his mind but that he feels with every beat of his heart. The rhythmic thrums grow weaker, but to what end? Is he fighting his fate, or is it accepting it?

Both ways feel so incredibly wrong.

Kakashi’s attempts at stopping the bleeding are too little, too late, and he knows, knows that it’s over—he can’t fight it anymore. There’s no saving himself from his own misery and mistakes and misplaced hatred.

Kakashi can survive; in this, he has faith. If anyone can escape the tragedy of their name, it is Kakashi. It was always Kakashi.

Sakumo only wishes that he could have held onto his son a little while longer.

#  _Ten_

Sakumo has never expected Kakashi to forgive him. He was ready and willing to stay in this limbo forever, if that was what Kakashi decided for him.

But that’s not what happens.

Kakashi tells him that he’s proud of his father. Kakashi dies younger than Sakumo, but he’s old enough to have a story to tell.

He tells Sakumo that Tsunade is hokage now. She hates the job and she loves the job. It sounds very like her.

Kakashi has a team of his own. An Uchiha and an Uzumaki, and a girl without a clan. They’re a handful, but Kakashi almost loves them.

And Duy was always right –Kakashi and Guy have become good friends, and possibly more, if the way Kakashi’s eyes light up and the way he laughs so easily when he talks about his rival is any indication. Kakashi says he regrets leaving him behind and is simultaneously glad Guy wasn’t around to do something stupid, like open the 8th gate to protect him.

Kakashi says he died protecting another child, an Akimichi, and asks Sakumo if he’s done well.

Sakumo smiles.

When he sees that Kakashi will get a second chance to continue his story, he’s happy.

He can’t wait to hear how Kakashi’s story continues from here.


End file.
